Creative Projecttt :)))

The Cheater Cheated

The inclusion of this scene is necessary to understand that cheating can become cyclical. The French tradesman boasted about how great of a cheater he was, but it was not until a man on the street told him of Iktomi. Iktomi was said to be the best cheater there was, he could steal anything from you without you even knowing. He was as witty as they came and it is because of his modest attitude that he was able to get away with these sneaky deeds. However, in life there will always be someone better than you at everything no matter how good you are at something. Iktomi faces this problem as he rides off into the horizon.

As Iktomi rides off into the horizon with his newly acquired horse, jacket, hat, and boots, the French man screams, “Sacre Bleu.”

Iktomi removes his jacket to reveal his backside back to the French man and sticks out his tongue to prove that he was tricked. This is when Iktomi makes the mistake of his cheating career. It is at this moment where Ikto bends down to unveil his jacket that the horse is spooked. He begins to kick and flail as he notices that it is not his French owner. Ikto is thrown to the ground during which his horse runs off. The horse runs off out of sight while Ikto is forced to walk back to the town towards the French man.

When Ikto reached the town the French man was the first to greet him.

“I see you have returned without my horse.” The French man said.

Ikto was rather embarrassed, but confidently remarks, “Yea, I realized if you and I were to team up and work together we could cheat the entire world.” Confused by Ikto's reply the trader hesitates a minute and decides that this will be a great idea. The first trick they decided to do was get a ride from these two men on horses. They get these two men's attention and they come over to speak to Ikto and the trader. The men ask, “What can I help you with?”

“Well, we just need a ride to our place, can you do that for us?” The two men reply, “Sure, we just need you to remove all of your clothing except underwear so we know you do not have any weapons.” As both of the men strip down to their underwear and put their clothes in the bag at the back of the horse, the two men look at each other with a coy smile. With the kick of their legs the horse gallops away with all of their belongings. They trot off with elegance and grace and yell back to the two fools, “Maybe next time you will not cheat others.” Little did these two know these two men were watching these two from the beginning. He watched Ikto cheat the trader.

Trip to Cherokeeeee :)

Cherokeeeeee!

First off I think you should follow the link above and you will have an idea of what I am about to say about Cherokee, North Carolina.

 This picture just shows that it was a tourist full trip.  The way the indians portrayed themselves was very discouraging to me.  People were waiting in front of shops just waiting to perform for the white man.  They were wearing very extravagant costumes, not even clothes they would be wearing in the past, just clothes that would catch our attention and entertian us.
But to move on to the actual learning experience of the trip...
The overall experience from the museum was very entertianing.  I think I learned in about an hour than I could of ever learned in my lifetime.  Overwhelmed with reading I began to skim very quickly.  I was drawn towards the information that was about the games they played such as chunkey.  It was played by rolling disc shaped stones across the ground and throwing spears at them in an attempt to place the spear as close to the stopped stone as possible.  I think if I could throw a spear and be that accurate I would be amazed with myself, but the game overall interests me.  The other parts that I was drawn to in the museum was more of the trickster tales.  There were a couple of different writings on how things came to be. 
The second part of this trip was to go to the Cherokee mound.  The picture below is the picture I took while there.  You can not see much of a mound, but I promise its there.  This was probably the best part of the trip.  I enjoyed it because I love being outside and the weather was gorgeous.  Plus, it was kind of an experience to actually walk around it.  Not exactly invigorating, but it was something different to do for the day. 

After that we took a trip to the casino were I was amazed to learn how much money the kids get when they turn 18.  Almost 100,000 dollars is given to them on their 18th birthday in hopes to help pay for college and an education and to further their lives.  But this part seemed to be more of a sales gig to me so I honestly stopped paying attention :/

The final part of course was trying the traditional Native American food.  FRY BREAD!  A super dense, fried bread.  This was made into the more modern taco, which was also a dissapointment.  I would probably never eat it again because I may have exploded if I ate anymore of it.  But overall the trip was fun, it provided me with a whole bunch of new experiences and I learned a lot more than anticipated. 

Respect- (n) esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person, a personal quality or ability, or something considered as a manifestation of a personal quality or ability.

The Lakota way is a book that is based around valued principles.  I focused on the chapter about respect.  Not only becuase it was assigned to me, I feel like respect is one of the most important values to understand and have for everyone. 

In this chapter they focus on the deer woman, a beautiful woman with long, black hair down to her knees.  Ultimately she can be compared to a siren, men would be attracted to her and spend the night with her, but they would forget about their families and loves of their lives and never want to return.  She only shows herself to the lone hunter.  One night she comes across Kokalaka, an experienced hunter, and tries to lure him in.  He is tempted, but while growing up his grandma had told him about the deer woman, and although she was very persuasive out of the respect of his grandmother he did what he was always told.  He refrained from going with her and she turned into and angry deer and he shot her with an arrow and she was never seen again by him.  If he had disrespected his grandmother's wishes he would of fallen into the siren's trap. 

There are a couple of other scenarios in this chapter that come into play and all focus on respect, like not killing innocent animals for fun, but out of neccessity.  Respect helps keep the world in check. 

Cherokee Forgiveness

Not being a very emotional person I found it extremely hard to try and connect with Patricia Grant speak about the Cherokee Forgiveness.  She is a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. She explained to us the troubles her people endeavored, her meanings of trauma, and the sacred hoop of balance. Trauma, to her, is cumulative, and psychic wounding across generations was related to the massive root trauma. This trauma was a direct result form the Trail of Tears. Where 17,000 Indians were removed from their homes and forced to march through the winter months with almost no sleep in attempts to try and exterminate them. Indians owned almost all of America and after a period of 500 years it dwindled to a mere 50,000 square acres. I knew it was hard for her to stand up there and talk about what she has dealt with and the horrific events that occured, but I was unable to fully understand the pain she felt since I am not a compassionate person. 

Sacred Hoop

Throughout her presentation she compared Indians to Americans. Indians work in a circular fashion while Americans work in a linear way. The sacred hoop emphasizes balance, harmony, the whole, and spiritual being. They have different morals and way of living that we do not. The first thing she said was that WE did this to her people and at first I took it personally because it was not I who did this and she seemed as though she was holding a grudge. Afterwards, I decided that it was not us she was mad at. It was our ancestors and there is nothing we can do to change the past, but it is still hard to deal with the trauma that emerged from this event.

The journey to forgiveness is an effort to help enlighten people about the tragic events suchs as the Trail of Tears and hopefully make people realize the amount of trauma that has been passed through the generations as an effect to these events.  More information about the journey is provided through the link below and there is a video on the site :) Enjoyyyyy!
Journey to Forgiveness and Healing

It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know. -RWE

The other day in class we were confronted with the question of what we have learned so far throughout the course. Off the top of my head I went blank, had I learned nothing so far? It took a couple minutes to start piecing things together throughout the course. The course requires me to think further into the blatant and more into the undefined. Reflecting upon the material studied made me realize how much I had truely learned about the Native American culture and life in general.

First of all I realized that prejudiced is still happening everywhere. I never thought of how often it occured because it is not as blatantly stated as it used to be, but it is still there. I also never realized the extent to which it could affect a person. How much of our past do we let define and effect our future.

A began to realize these thoughts when learning about Sherman Alexie. He would display his feelings and troubles through his writings and his fellow people did not understand why he would display his awaful past. He was filled with hurt and pain but allowed himself to reveal these thoughts through his works which made them easier to deal with and keep going in life. He stood up to his past and did not allow it to affect him too much.

People would also use Trickster tales to seperate themselves from a traumatic past. The tales would be a way of displaying their feelings, but in a way that would make them humorous and easier to deal with. Coyote would deal with bad event but the story would be twisted to make it funny and resonate with the pain easier. People still do that to this day. Laughter is the best medicine.

Even after dealing with it though how do you confront these troubles? You separate yourself away from the hurt and pain, do you forget it completely or confront the pain and make it be known that your ok with it and that you have learned from it?

From History to Disney

While reading The World Turned Upside Down I read a section and it had to do with John Smith.  Naturally, while reading I started to doze off and think back to watching Pocahontas and remembering her relationship with John Smith.  While going off on this tangent in my head I began to wonder how historically accurate can this Disney movie truely be? So, I decided to use the wonderful world of Google to do some research. 

From To

Matoaka, or more known as Pocahontas, was the daughter of Powhatan, the ruler of the land called Virginia.  To change history into a kid's cartoon is a hard thing to master and along the way some things must be sacrificed.  Disney had to eliminate all of the "bad" things that John Smith did in order to more concisely state the love story that occured between Pocahontas and John Smith.   In the Disney cartoon John Smith and Pocahontas met in the woods and immeadiately fell in love.  In reality, they met when Pocahontas rescued him from his execution.  The movie also showed that John Smith was captured one night when he went to sneak out to see Pocahontas.  The true story is that he was captured when him and his Indian guide split up during one of their expeditions.   Then the Powhatan adopted him as their son where he was widely accepted in the tribe.  In reality John Smith went back home to England so she got engaged to Kocoum  and she actually married John Rolfe instead.

Although Disney created a great love story, the story was fairly accurate. It had most of the love between John Smith and Pocahontas accurately represented but, unfortunately you could not use the movie for educational purposes.  I would of loved to watch this movie for funsies :)

FANCYDANCING

Trailer for "The Business of Fancydancing"

"The Business of Fancydancing" provided me with a new insight about the American Indian culture.  Overall, the movie was not one of my favorites.  The movie was very choppy and presented the facts in a fashion that I did not find interesting to follow.  The movie would be in the present time then flip to a flashback very often, then ocassionally switch to a moment of dancing and chanting.  Although it presented moments of heartfelt moments that touched the heart, I am not a super emotional person so the movie did not keep my attention.  I also found the movie to be very provacative, the language and open sexuality of the movie made me feel uncomfortable. 

The movie was about Seymour, the main character, conflict between his heritage and his life with his white boyfriend.  The movie begins as Seymour returns to the reservation for the funeral of his friend Mouse.  His friends from the reservation begin to question his motivations for writing his poems and making them public.They say that their culture should not be open to the public. 

Trail of Tears



The National Hisotric Trail

Since the beginning of this class we have discussed the many unfortunate things that the Native American Indians have been through.  Completely uneducated about most of these events I decided to look further into something I have heard about and become more educated upon the subject- The Trail of Tears.



The Trail of Tears by Robert Lindneux

   The Trail of Tears is a name given to the forced relocation and movement of Native American nations from southeastern parts of the United States following the Indian Removal Act of 1830. They faced hunger,disease and exhaustion. This journey resulted in a loss of over 4,000 of the 15,000 Cherokees. Jefferson hoped to create a dependancy upon trade with white Americans, therefore thinking they would leave the lands in exchange for goods.
Although just just giving a very brief overview of of the Trail of Tears, the manipulation of these people for American selfishness is completely outrageous.   
To help realize what these people went through I found a poem that explains, in detail, the amount of pain and suffering that was encountered during this event. 

The Trail of Tears

I look to the long road behind

My heart is heavy with my people's sorrow

Tears of grief I weep - for all that we have lost

As we march ever farther from the land of our birth

On the Trail of Tears

Mile after mile and day after day

Our people are fewer with each rising sun

Disease and starvation they take their terrible toll

And though we suffer still we march on

On the Trail of Tears

I watch my beloved weaken and fall

Upon the road like so many before

With tears in my eyes I hold my wife to my breast

And in my arms she breathes her last

On the Trail of Tears

Mile after mile and day after day

We march to a land promised us for all time

But I know that I can no longer go on

I know that is a land that I shall never see

On the Trail of Tears

As my body - it falls to embrace the earth

My spirit - it soars to greet the sky

With my dying breath am I finally set free

To begin the very long journey towards home

On the Trail of Tears

Brian Childers

The poem touches the senses and helps to completely submerge ones thoughts into the situation in hopes to relate to the awful tragedy that was forced upon these innocent people. 
I disagree with the awful acts that was put upon them, but the past can no longer be changed, in can only be used to enlighten and help to prevent similar actions from occuring in the future.  The path to prevention is through a path of knowledge. 


Trail of Tears Documentary

Vizenor and the trickster tales

Gerald Vizenor
(information about himself and his works)
http://www.hanksville.org/storytellers/vizenor/

Vizenor's video on the trickster tales helped me to go into further depth about understanding the tales themselves.  However, he states that every trickster tale has certain characteristics that qualify them as a trickster. I find this to not be entirely true while studying a couple of trickster tales from the book American Indian Trickster Tales by Erdoess and Ortiz.  Vizenor's definition of a trickster tale states that they are truthful stories that give meaning to contradictions, love and humor to mortality and flaws.  Tricksters always have a mythical character but they are never an evil character whom plays on human disorder.  He also says that these tricksters can do whatever they want but in the end they came to nothing.  In order to study his definition on the trickster tales I analyzed the tales by Nanbuzho and Whiskey Jack;  more specifically, "Why Women Have Their Moon Time."

The tale "Why Women Have Their Moontime," explains why things are the way they are with women.  (I don't wanna go into specifics in telling the story, so I will just give the main themes in comparison to Vizenor).  The contradiction holds true in this tale- the love/ hate relationship that is encountered with Coyote and his grandma.  This is the main similarity in Vizenor's definition and the tale.  The tale as a whole leaves a painful effect that  happens to every woman.  However, Vizenor emphasized that the trickster comes to nothing in these tales and I did not see that in this tale.  It actually happens that the /trickster ends up winning in this story by cursing every woman with a moon time because of grandma's selfish actions.

The second tale I analyzed was, "Why We Work so Hard to Make Maple Sugar."  This tale showed compassion and foreshadowing.  Foreshadowing that he loves his people and would do anything for them.  It also shows the consequences that could happen to people, whether they happen or not.  This part in particualr fit Vizenor's definition.  Human disorder comes into action in terms of consequences.  Humans decide whether or not they do something based on the consequences alone.  In some ways this inhibits people from doing what they want, and in others it helps keep people in line.  It is a sense of morale that helps keep people civil.

Although I had a brief summation of what Vizenor's thoughts on the american trickster were, I think the two tales I analyzed had some similarities and differences in Vizenor's definition.  I do not think that one can set an absolute guideline to what a trickster tale is, but I do think he described most of them very well.  In order to be more precise one would have to study almost every tale and come up with their own thoughts, ultimately, that owuld change depending upon the person who is interpretting these tales. 

Instincts

While in class the other day we began a topic that has always greatly appealed to me.  We started to talk about how humans are all flawed and that we externalize things in order to help better deal with them.  We make jokes out of serious issues in order to help cope.  However, the way people act and carry themselves is all a result from the things a person has been through.  We uses defenses and put up walls to keep people away, but the few people that we let into our lives are supposed to be there to help us.  However, human instinct is always to put ourselves in front of others and that when it comes down to it humans will do whatever possible to help themselves succeed.

The Only Holocaust?

When hearing the word holocaust the first thing that comes to my mind involves Hitler and the Jewish people.  The film presented in class informed me that there is more than just one holocaust.  One that happened over  a longer period of time and one that no one really concerns themselves with.  The holocaust involving the Indians goes unspoken about and when I was informed of the statistics to this event I was astonished that I was never taught this in former schooling.  The Jewish holocaust had casualties resulting in 6 million, however, the Indian holocaust started with 19 million Native Americans and ended with 260,000.  Almost 19 million people were killed and I was never taught this? The total number of deaths over time has resulted in over 100 million. 

How does such a tragic event go untaught in the school system?  Not even mentioned.  In hopes to change this I found a site that informed me further about this holocaust.. http://www.unitednativeamerica.com/aiholocaust.html

It shows a list of the horrible things that happened to the Indians, along with a video.

The emotions that poured out of me while watching this video made me wanna cry.  I felt so helpless and overwhelmed with the feeling to help change this.  Sorrow, shocked, hurt, astonished... I was completely dumbfounded by the images and thoughts that people could do this to other people for selfish reasons.  These people were completely dehumanized and stripped from their cultures and ideals. 

Kids were taken from their homes and told that everything they knew was wrong and they were taught a whole new set of traditions.  Brainwashed of their identities. 

"Almost every Indian carries scars and wonder when it's all over will I be Indian or will I be white?"

-Quoted by a Native American

"The only good Indian is a dead Indian"
-General Phillip Sheridan, U.S. Army

America is supposed to be a free place where people can come and openly display their cultures.  Yet we eliminate tribal government and lands become apart of America's "melting pot". We relocated, isolated, and alienated the culture of these people.  Around 12,000 Navajo in the last 25 years have been forced to move to land where noone wants, land near the largest radiation spill.  All because some were too selfish and were more interested in the large coal deposits than protecting and preserving their customs. 

Trickster Tales :)

Trickster tales have the characteristics of being playful, creative, and mischevious.  Some of the tales presented reflect the emotions and personalities of people in the world.  (more background on trickster tales can be viewed through this link- http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-9073359 ) A very important lesson in life is to mind your own business.  Although very cliche, it's an important aspect to life to understand.  Certain things are sheltered from people to prevent one from being hurt.  But where exactly is the line?  Friends are supposed to tell eachother everything even if that means hurting them and other times it's just too much to put their friend through.  So how exactly does one judge the fine line that separates the difference?  While reading the tale, Don't Be Too Curious (in the link below), the only thing I could think about is the personal things in life that one can relate to. 
http://oraltradition.wikia.com/wiki/Don't_Be_Too_Curious
Overall, I came to the conclusion that one should only be concerned with the infromation that is presented in front of them.  If one goes looking for trouble your more than likely gonna find it and possibly get hurt.


While still thinking about trickster tales, I decided to youtube them to see an actual storyteller tell the story and also so I did not have to continue to read.






 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlHtzU133NI

The video was about how rabbit got his stubby tail.  It makes me laugh because some of the reasons that these stories use to explain why things are seem so ridiculous.  The rabbits tail got frozen and pulled off while trying to catch fish.  The trickster bunny was tricked and it just shows that what comes aroung goes around.  Bunny was showing off his long warm tail and using it as warmth in the cold air and now bunny has no tail!):

Night Chant

Music appeals to people because they "catch" our interest and are easy to remember because of this.  Growing up I learned to look for a certain beat, rhyme, or count in poetry.  Putting some type of beat behind poetry makes it more interesting to read and interpret.  However, I was unable to do so  while reading the night chant.  Therefore, I was left with a very empty feeling about this writing.  It caught no interest of mine and the words alone made me feel like it was creating a false sense of reality.  The chant asked for so much from one thing.  The person is asking for rainbows, happiness, youth, and much more.  This poem had so much going on and repeated itself so much that I find myself skipping over words and only paying attention to the ones that are different.  Unable to pay attention to the poem altogether I am slightly confused the ultimate meaning. 

Reel Injun

The film Reel Injuns is a Hollywood film that explores the stereotypes associated with the Native American culture. 


The portrayal of Indians has always had a very stereotypical representation.  Even the modern representation has been skewed.  When people think of Indians one may picture a chanting Indian or man looking off a cliff into the wind as a symbol of a free spirit.  Emphasized in the video, the Hollywood representation over-dramaticized the view upon Indians as well.  However, movies have done this over time in order to appeal to audiences and bring in more revenue.  The more extravagant we can portray the Native Americans the more people will be interested and begin to believe a false representation of the true Indian culture.  I find this to be typical in today's modern world. More often than not a person would choose a more action packed movie or comedy over a documentary. It is just how society has made us think these days, we do what is accepted and what we have been taught to do.




Upon the opening of the film, it immediately shows the stereotypical man driving a muscle car that is “typical” of an Indian. To some degree I find super offensive, but explains the degree to which stereotypes have been used to remember history.

The famous Indian, Crazy Horse is a historical figure that greatly influenced the American Indian culture.  Ironically enough during the video it is stated that there is not an actual portrait of Crazy Horse himself.  This was due to Crazy Horse's belief that the more important issue was to remember what he stood for and what he was doing for his culture, not what he looked like.  The statue erected in South Dakota is a mere representation of what the man thought of when they thought about an Indian. Which leads me to disappointment, people who are visiting this monument get the mainstream representation of Crazy Horse which is less important than what he stood for.


This part of the film about Crazy Horse was the most interesting part to me.  This was because about 7 years ago I visited this monument in South Dakota.  Unaware of the historical importance that this statue portrayed at the time, I was amazed to see the lengths we have gone through just to remember him. Being so naive at the time I could not wrap my mind around how big this actual monument was and how exactly they were constructing it. The statue seemed to have little importance to me at the time and almost forgotten until I was reminded of it during the film. History and American Indians never have caught my interest and it was just something I put in the back of my mind, but as I continued to watch further I began to think that maybe it could be interesting.

The film overall just made me mad and made me realize the how often the American culture has skewed the historical accuracy in order to appeal to society.  And consequently how often people actually believe what they see in movies.